Pace: don't care
Wine consumed: the usual, normal amount for a healthy single woman with a stressful job
TST and I haven't had any pressing goals set for a while. It has been summer in Phoenix, and that takes the motivation out of even the most enthusiastic Gatorade-swilling athlete. But it is mid-September now, so for me at least (TST is always in shape), it has been time to get back in gear.
Upcoming races include the Bisbee Stair Climb 1000, so I have announced we are doing Stadium Wednesdays and Sundays to my friends. Now, we did Bisbee last year, and if you are not in the fast group, you don't exactly kill it on the stairs. You are surrounded by a lot of people trying not to have a heart attack who are going super slow, and it is impossible to get by them. So I don't feel like I need to be in amazing condition for this race; on the other hand, I don't want to be sore. Or be one of the heart attack people I may have been a teensy bit judge-y about last year.
Then I have the Tucson Half Marathon in December, which promises to be a solidly downhill course. My friend KS says she has run it and that it is, yes, assuredly downhill. So I need to PR this thing. Coach has been working with me on speed workouts, but alas, I still appear to be keeping the Slow in Slo-Jo. I just CANNOT run fast. I was trying to pace this woman who was not, shall we say, built like a runner, and she TOASTED me.
And then we have the Napa full marathon in March. TST picked it out, because she is a sadist. First, she wants to be in wine country at a time when our wine consumption has to be dramatically curtailed. Perhaps she does not remember wistfully wandering around New Orleans the Saturday afternoon before the marathon when all that sounded good was a little sazerac, but I do. And we ate dinner in New Orleans at 5pm. We were the only people in there. We even beat the elderly. Wine country with
Second, after I decided I was not going to let a little wine deprivation stop me from signing up, I perused the Napa marathon website and ran across this:
"The Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon (NVM) prohibits the use of all electronic devices on the race course—in accordance with Road Runners Club of America guidelines and USA Track & Field (USATF) Rule 1.44.3(f). These devices include cell phones, MP3 players, and other portable audio or video devices using headphones."
WHAT NOW?
No headphones? No music? Just me and my thoughts about chafing for several hours?
I posted this on Facebook, and two of my friends who are experienced marathoners chimed in and said it was actually good. I would be zen with my running. I would concentrate on form. It was way better than checking out and listening to music, they said. (These people do not take five hours to run a marathon, I will just note.)
Okay, so this is going to be swell. Can't wait.
Last, you are thinking, where is the triathlon you promised? A couple of points on that.
We're having a little trouble agreeing on a race. TST won't swim in a lake. She has suggested triathlons that involve a pool. Recall this is the same person who signed us up for a music-free, wine-free marathon. The thought of doing a tri in a pool gives me the concern as a no-music marathon about lapsing into a coma from boredom, but if you do that in a pool, you drown. Ix-nay the ool-pay, I say. I want to do ocean. Or at least open water. Anyway, we'll figure it out soon.
Also, the last time I went swimming I had a traumatic experience, so I haven't been back. In my last post, I mentioned how the high point of lap swimming is the hot tub awaiting me at the end of the swim. I love me some hot tubs. So while I swim, I keep one goggled beady eye on the hot tub to see who is in it. On the last one, some old lady got in it, then got out (me: score), then a middle aged man got in. Hmm. I kept checking on the laps that faced the hot tub to see if he was still in there, and noticed the tub was full of foam. "Huh," I thought. "There must be some sort of 'bubbler' action I hadn't noticed."
So I got out of the pool and, despite having a little friend in there, got in the hot tub. (Don't worry, this story doesn't turn into a Hot Tub After-Swim Delite story or anything.) I pushed the tidal wave of foam aside, nodded hi, and settled in. Ahhhhh. Then I looked around and saw a sign: "Why does the hot tub foam?"
Intrigued, I kept reading. "The hot tub foams when members don't take a shower and the tub senses extra body oils or dirt that trigger a chemical reaction to keep the tub clean."
I looked at the man. I looked at the sign. I looked at the foam chemicals stripping a layer off my skin. I got out of the hot tub and took a shower. So...I haven't been back. But my skin looks amazing.
